Because I am very taken by the performative nature of Meryl McMaster’s photographs, Marianne Katzman and Dario Del Degan from Katzman Contemporary invited me to work with Meryl to realize a new performance piece that would be presented during the opening of her exhibition. The welcomed challenge was how to interpret the photographs of a young woman presenting herself in nature into a performance by an older man taking place inside a gallery space. Wandering Together is a collaboration that started by linking Meryl’s blind contour drawings with my body and sand drawings. In the gallery, we constructed a tree out of branches that were bound together by cloth and placed sand below its trunk as a way to reference the outdoor environment. The feathers tied to my hand and the set of footprints came about spontaneously and opened up possibilities for further interpretation of this performance. On the opening night, I lay still on the bed of sand for over one hour before starting the mark making process with my body.
The photos and video below are thanks to Ed Pien, Meryl McMaster and Henry Chan.